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The roots and tubers industry in sub-Saharan Africa has been growing steadily in recent years. Nevertheless, a series of challenges, including lack of access to finance and climate change related events, has prevented the majority of actors in these value chains, who are mainly small farmers and small processors, from taking advantage of such growth. In order to properly assess such challenges, the project “Strengthening linkages between small actors and buyers in the roots and tubers sector in Africa” conducted a series of studies to identify relevant gaps, constraints and opportunities to develop tailored financial products and risk management strategies [...]

Beekeeping is a tradition for a large segment of the rural population in Azerbaijan. Prior to independence in 1991, apiculture was an intensive agricultural activity. Following independence, when agricultural reforms were carried out in the country for transition to a market economy, all beekeeping farms were privatized, and the beehives were divided among small farms. While the number of private farms and hives in each private farm increased, honey production dropped. The project aimed to increase the productivity of the local Caucasian honey bees, and to improve the capacity of beekeepers to produce more honey from each beehive.

This ‘Policy Analysis of Nationally Determined Contributions in Europe and Central Asia’ follows up on the previous effort to report on implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions in the region. Specifically, this publication compiles and analyzes the most relevant and updated information on policies and regulatory frameworks related to climate change in the region, including information on access to available climate finance to support countries in the implementation of their goals under the Paris Agreement.   This publication identifies the current commitments, policy and finance gaps and opportunities for enhancing climate change mitigation and adaptation ambitions in countries of Europe and Central Asia [...]

The critical role of forests in climate change mitigation and adaptation is now widely recognized. Forests contribute significantly to climate change mitigation through their carbon sink and carbon storage functions. They play an essential role in reducing vulnerabilities and enhancing adaptation of people and ecosystems to climate change and climate variability, the negative impacts of which are becoming increasingly evident in many parts of the world.  In many countries climate change issues have not been fully addressed in national forest policies, forestry mitigation and adaptation needs at national level have not been thoroughly considered in national climate change strategies, and cross-sectoral [...]

FAO’s Investment Centre provides a wide range of investment support services to developing and transition countries. This first annual review shines a light on the work of the Investment Centre and its partners – the international financing institutions - carried out in 2017 to increase the volume and quality of investments in food security, nutrition, agriculture and rural development. During that year, the Centre supported investment-related policy studies and processes to increase policy dialogue and contributed to the design, technical assistance, supervision or evaluation of 153 projects in 68 countries. It increasingly linked both its policy work with investment support [...]

Aligned with the GEF cross-cutting corporate strategy on capacity development (CD) FAO believes that robust and systemwide CD approaches are essential to enhance the impact, sustainability and scale of GEF projects through deepening country ownership, commitment and mutual accountability for results. Supporting countries through system-wide CD interdependently empowers people, strengthens organizations and enhances the enabling policy and institutional framework based on assessed needs. For GEF, 15 country projects have benefited from incorporating a step-by-step CD approach with innovative methodologies2 during project formulation and implementation. Findings reveal that the project quality increased substantially through complementing the biophysical with socio-economic and institutional elements, more effective and needs-based CD interventions across [...]

Nearly three years ago, world leaders agreed to the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – the central framework for guiding development policies throughout the world. This edition of The State of the World’s Forests is aimed at enhancing our understanding of how forests and their sustainable management contribute to achieving several of the SDGs. Time is running out for the world’s forests: we need to work across sectors, bring stakeholders together, and take urgent action. The State of the World’s Forests 2018 identifies actions that can be taken to increase the contributions of forests and trees that are [...]

The following recommendations have been elaborated building upon the main findings of the High-Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition of CFS (HLPE) report on Sustainable Forestry for Food Security and Nutrition. They aim to strengthen the contributions of sustainable management of forests and trees to the achievement of food security and nutrition and contribute to the progressive realization of the right to adequate food in the context of national food security in the overall context of achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, recognizing the essential role of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food [...]

This brochure presents FAO’s work on mainstreaming biodiversity as a cross-cutting theme in the agriculture, fisheries and forestry sectors. It provides examples of on-the-ground activities and highlights relevant international mechanisms. It shows how biodiversity and ecosystems benefit people in countless ways by providing food, clean water, shelter and raw materials for our basic needs. Agriculture is a major user of biodiversity but also has the potential to contribute to the protection of biodiversity. Occupying more than one-third of land in most countries of the world, if managed sustainably, agriculture can contribute to important ecosystem functions. These include maintenance of water quality, erosion control, biological pest control [...]

This study reviewed the achievements, and also the shortcomings, of 12 watershed management projects technically supported by FAO over the past decade, with a view to learning from experience. Unlike sectoral development approaches, watershed management involves examining the interactions among various natural processes and land uses and managing land, water and the wider ecosystem of the watershed in an integrated way. Watershed management is best carried out as a stepwise multistakeholder process. The review identified a sequence of steps that watershed management projects or programmes should ideally follow. The approach has demonstrated its effectiveness for responding to global challenges of [...]